THE controversial Javelin Park incinerator was at the centre of a political row this week amid differing views over how Gloucestershire rubbish should be dealt with.

The £600m incinerator, which is near junction 12 of the M5, became fully operational in January 2020 and takes up to 190,000 tonnes of residential waste each year.

Green Party Councillor Chris McFarling tabled several questions on the matter at this week’s full council meeting.

He raised concerns over the carbon emissions generated by the incinerator and asked whether Gloucestershire County Council was “locked into a contract” which demands a minimum amount of waste be sent to the plant.

The Tidenham councillor seemed to suggest landfill with methane capture was a better option for dealing with the county’s rubbish rather than incineration.

Cllr McFarling also asked if environment cabinet member David Gray (C, Winchcombe and Woodmancote) disagreed with a recent BBC report which said that burning household rubbish to make electricity is “the dirtiest way of generating power”.

Household rubbish being burnt at 850 degrees centigrade in the Javelin Park waste incinerator

The Conservative said the main purpose for the incinerator was for treating the county’s residual household waste.

He agreed that incineration is not the most environmentally friendly way of disposing rubbish but emphasised the council was “not digging up waste or coal to burn it”.

“Energy production is considered a benefit, but was not the main reason the contract was awarded to an EfW facility,” he said.

“Landfill, as the only other proven option for the management of waste, is not sustainable; energy from waste moves the management of residual household waste up the waste hierarchy.”

Cllr McFarling asked why he said incineration is better than the old method of sending rubbish into landfill as the incinerator generates electricity if energy production was not the main reason for awarding the contract to an energy from waste plant.

“Surely you are aware that landfill also generates electricity through the capture of landfill gas,” he said.

“When you talk about things moving up the waste hierarchy, are not recycling and composting proven options for managing waste.

“Given that the majority of what is currently being incinerated could have been collected for recycling and composting and is not reduction, reuse and recycling higher up the waste hierarchy than incinerating the stuff.

Cllr Gray said the council wants to “get higher up the recycling hierarchy in terms of encouraging people to do a better job of sorting the rubbish”.

He said it was important to recognise incineration of waste.

“We are not digging up waste to incinerate it,” he said.

“We are dealing with a product we have to deal with which is our residents. We generate waste and we have to find a way of dealing with it.

Gloucestershire County Council environment cabinet member David Gray (left)

“Yes, you can recover methane gas from landfill but it is generally recognised as an extremely unhelpful way of dealing with waste.

“The incineration, while it’s not the cleanest method of generating electricity, and that is not the purpose of what we’re doing, the incineration is a by-product of us dealing with the waste and avoiding landfill.”

He said the plant generates electricity to power 20,000 households. And if those properties were not using energy from that plant it would need to be generated some other way.

“As the market exists at the moment we are still reliant on burning gas to produce electricity.”

Cllr McFarling said incineration of plastic creates 175 times more carbon dioxide than burying it in landfill.

He said the javelin park incinerater park released 477kg of fossil carbon dioxide equivalent per ton in 2022.

He asked if he would agree that Javelin Park Incinerator could end up being worse than landfill in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Cllr Gray said the council is working to address climate change and absolutely takes Cllr McFarling’s point.

“I’m not defending Javelin Park as a beacon of hope in terms of what it does for us for climate change.

“But I do believe we have to deal with this issue of waste and in a cost effective way.”

Cllr McFarling said the council had effectively created a coal fired power station by building the incinerator.

“That’s what the BBC report said. What we’ve got now is as dirty as a coal fired power station.”

Cllr Gray said the council will be running campaigns aimed at reducing waste and increasing recycling.

“This is not a coal fired power station,” he said. “We do not dig up the waste in order to burn it.

“We have a proplem. We have waste that is generated and we need to deal with it.

“We are not opening coal mines in order to feed the incinerator.”